NARRATOR: Tonight on
The Curse of Oak Island...
GARY: That is an unusual find.
But you see on the top right?
- GARY: Yeah.
- LAIRD: Didn't we get those
crazy roman numerals on
the U-shaped structure, too?
I got seven and a
half foot of tunnel.
Yeah, it's nice, eh?
STEVE: You don't build a tunnel
like this unless you're
moving something important.
Yep.
RICK: We want to take a look
down in that cavity.
Here we go.
SCOTT: Slowly.
Whoa.
NARRATOR: There is an
island in the North Atlantic
where people have
been looking for
an incredible treasure
for more than 200 years.
So far, they have
found a stone slab
with strange symbols
carved into it...
man-made workings
that date to medieval times,
and a lead cross whose
origin may be connected
to the Knights Templar.
To date, six men have d*ed
trying to solve the mystery.
And according to legend,
one more will have to die
before the treasure
can be found.
♪ ♪
- ALEX: Hey, guys.
- PETER: Hey.
STEVE: Hey, guys.
- How you guys doing?
- Oh, Peter...
NARRATOR: With the
dawn of another morning
on Oak Island comes renewed hope
for brothers Rick and
Marty Lagina and their team
that they will finally make
the ultimate discovery
and solve the 228-year-old
treasure mystery.
So, uh, what are we doing?
We're pulling the casing right
now from the previous hole,
D.5N-25.5.
Right now we still have
some gaps in the data,
so we wanted to move
the rig another five feet
and we're gonna drill D.5N-24.5
and see if we can repeat
- and hit the tunnel again.
- Okay.
NARRATOR: Today they
are drilling Borehole D5N-24.5,
located some 28 feet east
of the mid-18th
century structure
known as the Garden Shaft.
It is the team's hope
that they will once again
penetrate a mysterious tunnel
that is believed to
run directly westward
below the shaft and into an area
that has been
dubbed the Baby Blob.
Over the past year,
high-trace evidence
of precious metals
has been detected
throughout this region,
as well as directly
beneath the Garden Shaft.
However, one week ago...
There's our wood.
There's our tunnel right there.
After once again
encountering this tunnel
more than 30 feet to the
east of the Garden Shaft,
the team detected
additional evidence
of precious metals
on a wood sample.
This means that the treasure
could actually lie buried
anywhere throughout
the entire region.
STEVE: If we hit it a third time
on the east side of
the Garden Shaft,
I think that's probably
enough to confirm
that this is our tunnel.
- Mm-hmm.
- SCOTT: And we're still waiting on dating
- to come back on the wood from this side as well.
- Yeah.
We want to verify
that this is real,
because if it is, this is
a reason to get excited.
- Right.
- Mm-hmm.
NARRATOR: Now
it is the team's goal
to not only continue
tracking the mysterious tunnel
in the direction of
the Garden Shaft
and the Baby Blob but perhaps
also make direct contact
with the ultimate source
of the precious metals.
SCOTT: Once Dumas
starts to work in the shaft
and they deepen that
shaft, if they confirm
the tunnel below is there,
we can do some lateral drilling
down the length of
that tunnel as well.
- Yeah.
- That's the way to do it.
TERRY: Absolutely.
We have to move things around,
but hopefully the
treasure will be found
partially because of it.
NARRATOR: Currently,
Rick, Marty and the team
are awaiting permission
from the provincial government
to allow a mining company
named Dumas Contracting Limited
to extend the Garden Shaft
to a total depth of 98 feet.
This will not only
help the team find out
if the legendary treasure
lies directly
below the structure
but also allow them to
construct lateral tunnels
toward any other
promising targets.
RICK: We have almost
singularly focused on
the Garden Shaft extension
and the possible
tunneling associated with it.
Hopefully, we intercept
the tunnel that we know
is beneath the Garden
Shaft with this borehole.
Then, once Dumas arrives,
we have the
opportunity to tunnel,
which we hope will get
us closer to the treasure.
Gotcha.
All right. Here we go.
- Okay.
- TERRY: I like this hole.
TEDFORD: I think she's going in.
STEVE: If we have enough data
to suggest that this is
the continuous tunnel
that goes under
the Garden Shaft,
the second phase of this is
to get a sonar or camera down.
Yeah, it'd be great to
get a camera in there
and see where it's going.
Perhaps this could
lead to something,
and that's why we
got to track this down.
- Yeah.
- PETER: Yeah.
SCOTT: Hopefully
we're getting closer.
NARRATOR: While the
drilling operation continues
in the Money Pit area...
MARTY: Hello, guys. I'm
on the edge of my seat.
- Hey, Marty.
- Hey.
NARRATOR: Alex Lagina has
joined his father Marty
and Uncle Rick, along with
other members of the team,
for a highly anticipated
meeting in the w*r room.
We have C-14 results
from wood retrieved as part of
the sonic drill program
above the Money Pit,
which, again, is
closely associated
with the tunnels
that we have found.
NARRATOR: Marty and Rick's
business partner Craig Tester
has just received a
carbon-dating report
on a wood sample
from Borehole D5N-26.5,
the borehole that encountered
the mysterious tunnel
on the eastern side of the
Garden Shaft one week ago
and which also contained trace
evidence of precious metals.
We're hoping that
this data will confirm
pre-searcher
activity in that area.
So, I'm going to
turn it over to Craig,
and hopefully he's got
good news for us all.
CRAIG: Okay. So,
this is where the tunnel
is going to the west, going
to the Garden Shaft, really.
And then the piece we took,
we felt was the outer edge,
which would be the
date it was cut down.
The numbers come back
Whoa.
That's good.
MARTY: So, the unknown
tunnel almost has to be depositor,
it's not a searcher.
Correct.
Wow.
CHARLES: Actually, those date
ranges brings up a theory to me,
the Duc d'Anville
expedition in 1746
that tried to
recapture Louisbourg.
So, it's... that certainly
falls in that range.
- ALEX: Yeah.
- RICK: Correct.
I agree.
DOUG: I found eight pages
of a ship's log.
NARRATOR: In 2017,
Oak Island historian
Doug Crowell discovered
a portion of a
French naval report
in the provincial archives
related to the unsuccessful
attempt by France
to reclaim Nova Scotia
from Great Britain in 1746.
According to the ship's log,
prior to the French defeat,
a secret operation to hide
a vast cache of valuables
had taken place
somewhere south of Halifax.
DOUG: "September 8th.
"It has been agreed
that a deep pit be dug
"and treasure securely buried.
"The pit to have
a secret entrance
by a tunnel from the shore."
NARRATOR: It was carried out
under the command of the Duc d'Anville,
a prominent member of
the Rochefoucauld family,
who are believed
to have connections
to the Order of the
Knights Templar
dating back to the 12th century.
In my mind, there's
no doubt that they're
pointing right to Oak Island.
MARTY [over video]: Those
dates are highly significant to me.
This is an outlier in the sense
that it's much more definitive
than almost everything we get.
- ALEX: Mm-hmm.
- Absolutely.
NARRATOR: Is it possible
that the team has now confirmed
that the tunnel running
below the Garden Shaft,
which has also been
scientifically dated
to as early as 1735,
may very well be
related to the ship's log
that Doug Crowell found in
the Nova Scotia Archives?
If so, could they have
finally discovered the key
to solving the Oak
Island mystery?
Here we have a very
specific piece of data,
i.e. probability window,
that could be associated with
the Duc d'Anville expedition
to recapture Louisbourg.
It has always been
a player, if you will,
in terms of what happened
here on the island.
JACK: I've been
working over on Lot 5,
and this from 1656
to 1804,
that's the same date
range that we're dealing with
of these hidden structures.
Like, that round
circular feature,
and also, that
really deep location,
we were calling it Site 1.
NARRATOR: Since their
purchase one year ago of Lot 5...
The four-acre property
located on the western
side of the island...
The team has made a
number of stunning discoveries,
including three
ancient Roman coins
as well as a 14th-century
lead barter token
which is a compositional
match to the lead cross
that was unearthed at
Smith's Cove back in 2017.
However, they have also
investigated the remains
of two mysterious
stone-lined structures.
And within both of
them, they have found
numerous artifacts that have
dated back to the mid-1700s.
- RICK: You can't get enough data.
- STEVE: Right.
So, two things come of it. One,
continue to explore Lot 5,
and the second thing is,
you have to chase this tunnel.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
Way to go, guys.
Okey doke. We will
keep you apprised.
MARTY: All right.
RICK: All right, see you.
MARTY: See you, guys.
- TERRY: Here comes the core, guys.
- CHARLES: Yeah.
-68. -68.
- Yeah.
- Thanks a lot.
NARRATOR: After
their compelling meeting
in the w*r room,
Alex Lagina and
Charles Barkhouse
have returned to the
Money Pit area to monitor
the core-drilling operation
in borehole D5N24.5.
A borehole that they hope
will once again reach a tunnel
that may lead directly
below the Garden Shaft
and to the fabled
Oak Island treasure.
Wow. This stuff is really soft.
- Yeah.
- This is abnormally, unusually soft.
D5N24.5...
could be very close
to the structure.
Given the softness
of this material.
That's very uncharacteristic.
- Yeah, that's very soft.
- Wow, is that ever soft?
Look at that.
ALEX: When we go into an area
with softer soils,
saturated soils,
usually, the only time that
happens here in the Money Pit
is if we're drilling
near an old shaft
or a collapsed
tunnel or, really,
any other area where
somebody has done something.
TERRY: And certainly indicated
that there are shafts
in this area, right?
So, again, I think we're
close to something, but...
at 78 feet, we're still about
- 25 feet above our target horizon.
- CHARLES: Yeah.
Yep.
ALEX: Okay. Well, we will see
- what we can find out with this hole.
- Yeah.
NARRATOR: As the
drilling operation continues
in the Money Pit area...
GARY: This is our
chance to shine, Rick.
- Lot 5.
- Yep.
NARRATOR: Rick Lagina
and metal detection
expert Gary Drayton
arrive on Lot 5 to
look for more clues
that might reveal who built
the mysterious stone structures
located in this area and why.
- GARY: I've gone over all this stuff...
- Mm-hmm.
And I've got a lot of flags.
I've got a dozen
flags in this area.
And all of these spoils came
from the bottom of that hole,
so it should be
the deepest finds.
NARRATOR: They are
starting their search in the spoils
that have recently been removed
from a circular depression.
A feature where they
have found artifacts
dating between the 17th
and mid-18th centuries.
- Pretty good.
- Yeah, pretty good.
I'm in agreement,
mate. Pretty good.
NARRATOR: After
detecting and flagging
a number of potential
targets earlier today,
Gary and Rick have
now received permission
from archaeologist Laird
Niven to dig them up.
- [detector beeping]
- It's out.
Come on. Let's
be something good.
[high-pitched beeping]
RICK: Yeah. That
right there? Oh.
[rapid beeping]
It's in my hand,
which means it's small.
It's that.
- A lead sh*t.
- Mm-hmm.
RICK: Small caliber, too.
GARY: Yeah. It's an oldie.
- RICK: Very cool.
- We'll get the lead tested.
I'd say it's period for the lot.
All the finds we're
finding are going way back
to the early 1700s.
Could be anywhere in the 1700s.
Or even a little bit older.
It could be m*llitary.
NARRATOR: A lead sh*t?
Found in the spoils removed
from the circular
feature on Lot 5?
And possibly dating
back to the 1700s?
If so, could it be another
clue potentially related
to the Duc
d'Anville's ship's log,
which detailed a
French naval mission
to hide treasure on an island
in this area back in 1746?
GARY: All right.
- Let's find some more.
- RICK: Okay.
[detector beeping]
That could go either way.
- There, now it's broken up.
- [detector beeping]
- Sounding good.
- [high-pitched beeping]
- That was it.
- A shell casing.
Is it? No, it is not a
shell casing, mate.
That is an unusual find.
- Yeah, what is that?
- Look at that, mate.
GARY: I don't know.
- You know, the archaeologists are over there.
- Mm-hmm.
- Should we call Helen over?
- RICK: Sure.
Helen. Check this out.
Hey, Gary. You guys
have found something?
- GARY: Yeah, look at this.
- RICK: What do you make of that?
HELEN: Oh. Look at that.
- GARY: Hopefully, you have an idea...
- Oh, my God.
- Of what it is.
- RICK: What is that?
I would say it's, like,
you know, g*n-related.
- Yeah?
- It almost looks like a sight.
GARY: But it's really,
really special-looking,
and I'm glad you went to "g*n,"
- because I was thinking old g*ns.
- Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, to me, that looks
like a g*n sight, right?
- Could be.
- HELEN: Yeah, that's nice.
- GARY: For sure.
- Yeah.
Well, thanks for
your input, Helen.
- RICK: Yep.
- Okay.
RICK: We have found items
that we believe have
some m*llitary context.
This may be another of them.
Again, this speaks
to an enterprise here
could possibly have
been conducted
by the Duc d'Anville expedition.
The good news is,
they can be tested.
How about taking
this lot back to the lab?
I'm really, really curious.
That copper barrel-shaped
artifact, that's special.
Let's add that to the
database and keep going.
GARY: Okay, mate.
Back to the lab.
NARRATOR: The following morning,
while the drilling
operation continues
in the Money Pit area...
TEDFORD: Looks like
we'll get 'er down that.
COLTEN: Another foot and a half.
MARTY: Gentlemen.
We've assembled because we
are reaching a critical juncture.
The very centerpiece
of this year's work
is deepening the Garden Shaft.
NARRATOR: Rick, Marty
and other members of the team
gather in the w*r
room for a meeting
via video conference
with representatives
from Dumas Contracting Limited.
MARTY: Okay,
well, you've got us all,
uh, on the edge of our seats.
We'd like to know the
latest developments,
and when you're gonna
be out here making shaft.
CAMERON [over
video]: Yeah, very good.
As everyone's aware,
uh, in order to facilitate
the work planned for
Oak Island this year,
we need to have a
code of practice in place
that's authorized by
the Department of Labor
in the province of Nova Scotia.
NARRATOR: While the team
continues their core-drilling effort
to track the tunnel
that is believed
to run ten feet below
the Garden Shaft,
they are eager to know just
when Dumas will be authorized
to deepen the structure
by some 20 feet
so they can personally find
out just where the tunnel leads
and what it may contain.
CAMERON: Most recently,
we've been updated
by the Department of Labor,
where they have
suggested segmenting
the scopes of work this year
into one code of
practice that would govern
the deepening of the
existing Garden Shaft,
and then a second
code of practice
that would enable
us to go laterally
and perform our tunneling work.
- Yeah.
- TONY L.: The plan would be to split up
the-the code of practice,
and we're definitely sh**ting
for a-as soon as possible to get
everything, uh,
submitted to them,
uh, with respect to
the shaft deepening.
Okay.
Dumas needs permission
from the various authorities
here in Nova Scotia,
mainly involving safety.
They have to get approval
on the code of practice,
which basically sets
out all the conditions
upon which they will be allowed
to deepen the Garden Shaft
and possibly tunnel out from it.
What is your expectation
regarding issuance
of the code of practice?
This code of practice, we
anticipate it being issued
certainly before the
end of the month,
related to, uh, the
shaft deepening.
Otherwise, our
crews are prepared,
and we are operationally
ready to come out
and operate on the
island this summer.
Okay. That's all my questions.
- Anybody else?
- RICK: No, I'd just...
- keep your fingers crossed.
- Yeah.
RICK: We have to respect
and honor the requests of
the government authorities,
but if the code of practice
is delayed much further,
I think it's certainly
is going to affect
all aspects of our
work in the Money Pit.
Well, we look forward to
getting you guys back out here.
- Yeah.
- This, uh, some exciting times, and, you know,
we welcome your
participation and efforts.
CAMERON: Thank you
very much to the entire team.
We're gonna do this safely.
- Sounds good.
- Okay.
- Thank you.
- You got it. Bye.
- MARTY: We'll be in touch.
- RICK: Thank you.
TEDFORD: Looks like
we'll get 'er down that.
NARRATOR: As members of
the Oak Island team continue
drilling in search of a
possible treasure tunnel
in the Money Pit area...
JACK: Hello, everybody.
- Wow.
- JAMIE: Look who's here.
NARRATOR: on
Lot 5, Jack Begley
joins Helen Sheldon,
Jamie Kouba,
Lindy Martin and Fiona Steele
as they investigate a
mysterious rock foundation
that was first
discovered one year ago.
Last year, when we
found that deep wall,
I've been wondering
what this place is.
- Yeah.
- NARRATOR: Curiously,
when this feature
was found in 2022
by Rick and Gary Drayton
while they were
metal-detecting in the area,
the team uncovered
numerous artifacts
such as pottery and pipe
stems that are believed
to date back to
approximately 1750.
The same time period
as the Garden Shaft
and mysterious tunnel that
they are currently investigating
in the Money Pit.
So, the plan is to get the
entire surface of it uncovered.
- Mm-hmm.
- NARRATOR: It was also believed
by the archaeology team
that this feature was
deliberately buried.
Any idea yet on
what this might be?
- HELEN: It's early days yet.
- Maybe it is some sort
of a homestead, but
why would they bury it
- under so much soil?
- There was a lot of soil
- on top of it, I agree with you.
- Yeah.
JACK: Like, this isn't typical
for any settler to do, right?
To just bury their homestead?
No, normally, it would
be naturally buried.
With the passage of
time, it would've filled in.
See, I kind of feel
like someone was...
Might have been
trying to hide something.
And why? We're so far
away from the Money Pit.
People did used to
bury their things as well.
- Mm-hmm.
- Right? You know, their stash of precious items.
JACK: Yeah. Hopefully,
there's a bunch of items in here
or maybe it leads deeper.
There might be clues once
we get to the bottom of this.
HELEN: And if this is as early
as we think, like, even say 1750,
this predates the
discovery of the Money Pit.
So, it may tie in to more
than that. Who knows?
Maybe it's an encampment.
- Yeah, it's possible.
- And they buried them
to hide evidence of
them being on this lot.
But there's so many coins.
And from what we found,
it could be connected
directly to the Money Pit.
We've only just started
digging up this feature,
so, hopefully, the finds
just continue to explain
exactly when it was first dug
and what it might
have been used for.
NARRATOR: As members of the
archaeological team carefully excavate soil
from within the
mysterious foundation,
Fiona Steele sifts through
spoils with a fine screen
to look for clues and
potential valuables.
Helen, I actually found a shard,
uh, which I'm surprised
at, in that top layer.
- Did you really?
- Yeah, it's not very big, but...
It was just in that top layer.
- Just a little one, but...
- Yeah.
Nonetheless, it is a shard.
HELEN: Yeah.
Uh, possibly creamware.
Because it has that slightly
yellowish tinge to the glaze.
NARRATOR: A possible
piece of creamware pottery?
Because this type
of clay earthenware
could date back to the mid-1700s
and predate the
discovery of the Money Pit
by nearly half a century,
could it be another
critical piece of evidence
to help identify
who may have
constructed this feature?
- So, we'll definitely...
- Slightly out of place.
- Keep this separate, then.
- We'll keep it separate.
Yeah, yeah. Okay.
Great find.
FIONA: I just wasn't
expecting that.
HELEN: Yeah.
JAMIE: It's exciting.
NARRATOR: Later that afternoon,
in the Interpretive Centre...
CRAIG: So, what
do we have today?
This artifact came off of Lot 5,
not too far off
the round feature.
It may be g*n-related.
NARRATOR: Rick
Lagina, Craig Tester
and other members of the team
meet with
archaeologist Laird Niven
and archaeometallurgist
Emma Culligan
to get their analysis
of the artifact
found one day ago on Lot 5.
So, it's a ramrod
guide for a musket.
This would be in there,
and the ramrod would
come through the front tube.
This would be the center tube,
and it would be held
in with the third one.
NARRATOR: The smoothbore
long g*n, known as a musket,
was invented in Europe near
the beginning of the 16th century.
A feature known
as a ramrod guide
was designed for
aiding the operator
in the loading of lead
or stone projectiles
into the muzzle of the musket.
And what type of musket, mate?
- That's the million-dollar question.
- Exactly.
If it's a musket, that would
make it pretty old, then.
Yeah.
GARY: Anywhere from 1600s
- to 1800s.
- LAIRD: Yeah.
But you got to love
that patina, mate.
- Yeah. Yeah.
- That tells you it's really old.
LAIRD: The only
strange thing is that
- there's a little tiny hole here...
- Yeah.
Which I haven't
seen in-in others.
Well, it seems fancy.
RICK: But it'd
be nice to know...
French, British?
- LAIRD: Mm-hmm.
- ALEX: Yeah.
You know, some
nationality to that.
EMMA: Do you want
to see the CT image?
ALEX: Sure.
NARRATOR: Earlier this morning,
Emma processed the artifact
using the SkyScan
By emitting nondestructive
X-ray radiation,
the device can penetrate
built-up corrosion on objects,
revealing clear
along with their finer details.
EMMA: So, it's just loading.
- LAIRD: The little hole just turned big.
- GARY: Yeah.
LAIRD: That's a clean scan.
- EMMA: Yeah.
- Yeah.
LAIRD: But you
see on the top right?
- ALEX: Yeah.
- GARY: Oh, yeah.
ALEX: It looks like
there's Roman numerals.
Yeah. Didn't we get those
crazy Roman numerals
- on the U-shaped structure?
- Yeah.
Yeah.
GARY: That is really cool.
ALEX: It looks like
there's Roman numerals.
GARY: That is really cool.
It looks like "VIIII."
NARRATOR: In the
Interpretive Centre, Rick Lagina,
Craig Tester and
members of the team
have just discovered
that the potentially ancient
musket artifact, found
one day ago on Lot 5,
curiously bears Roman numerals.
The only thing I can
think of is that could be a...
it could be a regiment, I guess.
- It's an odd thing to mark.
- CRAIG: Yeah.
GARY: Yeah. Looks
like a "VIIII," doesn't it?
Yeah, and we saw
that in Smith's Cove.
- Right.
- On the U-shaped structure.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
NARRATOR: In the early 1970s,
Rick, Marty and Craig's
late partner Dan Blankenship
built an earthen cofferdam
that surrounded Smith's Cove
on the eastern end of Oak
Island in order to drain the area
and look for evidence of the
legendary flood tunnel system
that acted as a booby trap
for the original Money Pit.
Dan was amazed to
uncover a 65-foot-long
U-shaped wooden structure
that featured Roman numerals
and which he believed
was constructed
as a surrounding barrier
for the flood system.
There's probably a ramrod
waiting for us
somewhere in that area.
NARRATOR: Is it possible
that the U-shaped structure,
along with the other
features and artifacts
that have been found on Lot 5
may be connected
to a 1746 ship's log
which detailed how
treasure was "securely buried"
in a deep pit on
a wooded island?
RICK: Finding the Roman numerals
carved on that little
bit of ramrod guide,
it brought back
memories of, certainly,
the U-shaped structure.
We've never found
Roman numerals before
on any other artifact to date.
And to have them found here,
I think the two are
strongly connected.
GARY: Absolutely fantastic.
This has given us hope that
there's more finds on Lot 5.
I say we give it another sh*t.
I want to find the rest of it.
- I'm in. -I'm with you.
- All right. Good luck.
- RICK: Thank you, Laird.
- GARY: See you, Laird. Cheers.
ALEX: Thanks,
Emma. Thanks, Laird.
NARRATOR: Following the
meeting in the Interpretive Centre...
TERRY: We're just
at 98 feet below grade.
NARRATOR: Alex
Lagina has joined
other members of the
team in the Money Pit area.
STEVE: So, the next core
- is our, uh, is our core.
- CHARLES: Yep.
If it's there, we'll see
it in our next core.
NARRATOR: After nearly two days
of slowly drilling through
previously disturbed soil,
the team is about to reach
the target depth of 105 feet
in borehole D5N24.5,
where they hope to once
again encounter the tunnel
that is believed to run directly
below the Garden Shaft.
[metal grinding]
This looks interesting.
STEVE: Well, we
have a core coming.
ALEX: The core is up.
- TERRY: Oh, my.
- Yeah.
- CHARLES: I think we hit wood.
- Wow. It looks like
a chunk of something
coming right out the base.
Looks like we got wood
right off the get-go here, guys.
CHARLES: You know, oftentimes,
when we find wood in cores,
there's not much there.
- Oh, yeah.
- TERRY: Wow.
That is excellent.
That's really interesting.
CHARLES: However,
this time, we pull up a timber.
It's a vertical timber.
This is really odd.
TERRY: It looks like
we've got a section of beam.
- STEVE: Oh, yeah. Look at it.
- Vertical support.
Oh, that... yeah, that was the
top... that's up towards the top.
- Thank you, Colten.
- What is that, Colten?
- CHARLES: 108?
- COLTEN: Uh, 108.
- 108? This is the bottom.
- Thank you.
Oh, wow. That's a lot of wood.
That's a lot of wood,
for sure. My gosh, guys.
What do you think it is, Terry?
TERRY: I think it's
just uprights of a tunnel.
STEVE: The main point of this
borehole is we're looking for that tunnel
that goes under
the Garden Shaft.
Hitting wood helps confirm
that that is our tunnel.
TEDFORD: Little bit more.
And the very top.
TERRY: Oh, my.
That's a pretty significant
chunk of upright.
- That's a big tunnel.
- That's a big tunnel, for sure.
Six.
Seven.
So, I got seven and
a half foot of tunnel.
- ALEX: I would agree with that.
- STEVE: Seven and a half feet of tunnel?
- Seven and a half foot.
- Oh, that's a lot longer than I thought it was.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
ALEX: This core is
almost 100% wood,
which is really great, and it
means that we hit the tunnel.
If that's true,
then this tunnel,
and anything it's connected
to, becomes our next best target.
Maybe the tunnel
leads to the Money Pit.
CHARLES: Let's get Rick up here.
- TERRY: Absolutely.
- ALEX: I'll call him.
Sounds good.
Uncle Rick.
Hey.
So, I'm up with the
guys at the drill table.
Uh, we just hit
our target depth.
We were looking to hit a
tunnel, and what we did hit
was approximately seven
and a half feet of upright.
ALEX: Yeah. But it does really,
really well define the
height of the tunnel.
If it's a tunnel.
- ALEX: Sounds good. We'll see you soon.
- TERRY: See you, Rick.
TERRY: We've
got wood right there.
And it stops
cleanly right there.
That's the cut top right there.
I knew if I stayed away long
enough, you'd find something.
- Yeah. Exactly.
- Hi, Rick. How you doing?
- Hey.
- There it is.
NARRATOR: After being
informed by his nephew Alex
that the team has just drilled
into a seven-and-a-half-foot
tunnel more than 100 feet deep
in borehole D5N24.5...
- RICK: It's quite remarkable.
- ALEX: Yep.
NARRATOR: Rick Lagina
has arrived in the Money Pit area
to assess the potential
breakthrough discovery.
TERRY: There's
the bottom right there
at 108 feet below grade.
I think we hit a whole
section of a support beam.
RICK: That looks
like it's hand-cut.
I see, yeah.
I see hand-shaping
there, for sure.
- STEVE: That's a good sign.
- Yep.
- Yeah.
- STEVE: Yeah, that's a really good sign.
- Right here.
- Absolutely.
TERRY: You can see
an adze cutting in there.
In here? Yeah, it's...
- CHARLES: Yeah, you can see right there, too. Look, see?
- TERRY: Beveled edge here. Yep.
ALEX: This is cut here.
Oh, yeah.
The adze cut is
really quite interesting.
- TERRY: Hand-shapen rather than milled.
- Yeah.
NARRATOR: Believed
to have first been invented
more than 2,200 years
ago in ancient Egypt,
an adze is a type
of construction tool
featuring a sharp blade
that runs perpendicular
to its handle.
They were widely
used to shape wood
for structures
and sailing vessels
until being phased out
during the 18th century
by mechanized saws.
ALEX: Somewhere,
there is a shaft...
- Somewhere there is a shaft.
- From which this tunnel was dug.
And a big shaft, because
you think, if you're,
if you're bringing down seven,
- eight-foot-tall pieces of lumber...
- Yeah.
- You don't have a tiny little shaft you're going down into.
- That's it.
Right. [chuckles]
NARRATOR: If the team
has truly found a large tunnel
that was constructed
with adze-cut timbers,
could it mean they have
once again encountered
the same tunnel that has
been dated to as early as 1735?
Or might it be an
even older structure?
STEVE: For me, you
don't build a tunnel like this...
- I mean, it's a seven or eight-foot tunnel...
- Yep.
Unless you are moving material.
- Yeah.
- Or you're moving
something important.
My opinion would be, unless
you were depositing something,
I don't see why you would
build a seven-foot tunnel.
'Cause you could very
easily walk down this.
Yeah.
RICK: Given the
no searcher did
this kind of work.
The only other thing
I've seen that's that scale
- is when we were in Italy last year.
- Yeah.
Which, at the time, I thought
were absolutely enormous.
NARRATOR: One year
ago, Rick and Alex Lagina,
along with other
members of the team,
traveled nearly
in order to investigate
possible ties
between the Knights Templar
and the Oak Island mystery.
- ALEX: Boy.
- RICK: Stunning.
- ALEX: Everything is just so well built.
- Yeah.
NARRATOR: While there, they
visited two man-made cave systems
that were used by the
Templar order between
the 12th and 14th centuries.
ALEX: We have seen
this symbol before.
- RICK: H+O Stone.
- PETER: Yeah.
NARRATOR: One of the
massive labyrinths located
in the town of Osimo
contained a carved
symbol that was also found
on Oak Island in the 1920s.
ALEX: Now, that's a
direct tie to Oak Island.
This arm should be
a bit longer than this one.
NARRATOR: And another
cave system that they visited
in the nearby town of Camerano
featured an entire
section that, incredibly,
was an exact match in design
to the 14th-century lead cross
that was found on
Oak Island in 2017.
RICK: 3,000 years
later, it still stands.
This, I think, is a twist,
- and that's the worked inside edge.
- Yep.
RICK: When all of the
other searcher tunnels
that we've discovered have been
four or five feet tall,
certainly nothing
taller than that,
why seven feet tall?
And the enormity of the
labor associated with that.
Will it prove to be
something dramatic?
Let's get some cameras
in there, and then,
develop a strategy
by which you can
possibly physically access it.
So, here's what I think.
I think we should get Paul
up here with the camera...
- Absolutely.
- Because we want to take a look.
The drillers, at this
point, are very important.
They did the work, right?
And they might be able to
tell us how they would proceed.
And, uh, Paul
can start putting...
Well, there they
are right there.
BRENNAN: Hello. How
are you doing, guys?
Well, you tell us.
That's-that's what
I was just telling everybody.
You guys did the work.
So, we want to be
able to take a look,
if possible, down
in that cavity,
if it is a cavity.
- How do we proceed from here?
- BRENNAN: Probably best
to pull back that
casing to expose
a relatively open hole.
And that probably would be
your best chance of getting
- an open hole to physically see something.
- ALEX: Right.
BRENNAN: That's a good piece
of wood that you pulled out of there,
- so there's a bit of a void there.
- Well, it's...
it's hand-cut, which
is quite interesting.
- BRENNAN: Oh, yeah?
- TEDFORD: Oh, really?
Yeah.
Yeah, that's nice, eh?
TERRY: So, we should have an
open section of tunnel to look at.
Okay. We're in your hands.
- BRENNAN: All right. Let's go for it.
- TEDFORD: Sounds good.
- All righty. Thank you, guys.
- Thank you.
STEVE: This is exciting.
PAUL: We have, uh, 30, 40
feet before we get to that area.
Then we'll have to zero it
out when you're right at the top
of the casing and put it down.
NARRATOR: In
the Money Pit area...
- Hey. -Hey, guys. How are you?
- RICK: You guys ready?
NARRATOR: after drilling
into a seven-and-a-half-foot high,
potentially ancient
wooden tunnel
more than 100 feet below ground
in borehole D5N24.5...
- I'll start dropping this down.
- Yep.
NARRATOR: Rick Lagina
and members of the team
are about to lower a
camera down into it,
in the hopes of seeing
what it might contain.
- STEVE: Alex, can you pull me tight?
- Yep.
STEVE: Okay. Now I'm
gonna take a little bit more slack.
Here we go. I'm gonna
put it in and we'll zero it.
PAUL: The lights
are on. There you go.
- All right, do we still have a clean image?
- SCOTT: We do.
- Yes.
- STEVE: Here we go.
Okay, so we're going
down the casing.
Clearly see the edge of it here.
NARRATOR: In order to
investigate the mysterious structure...
Or tunnel... the
team is utilizing
the Inuktun Spectrum
The device features a lens
that can pan 360 degrees,
and is designed to operate
in low-light conditions.
BRENNAN: What are you at now?
- ALEX: Five meters.
- Okay.
ALEX: The last time
we drilled into this tunnel
on the east side of
the Garden Shaft,
there seemed to be
an opening, a cavity.
We couldn't use a
camera at the time,
but we're hoping,
with this borehole today
that-that we'll get
one more sh*t at it.
The number one thing is
to get a camera down there
and see what we've hit,
and hopefully, after that,
we can get a clear image.
- ALEX: I don't... I don't...
- SCOTT: Whoa!
- PAUL: Whoa.
- Okay. In water.
Yeah. We just went pitch-black.
We can't even see the casing.
So, that's seven
and a half meters.
- RICK: Right there.
- SCOTT: Yeah.
Pull it, pull it back
up out of the water.
Let's watch the
transition going in.
- STEVE: Yeah.
- Look at the dirt on the lens.
SCOTT: Go in. Back down in.
Slowly.
There.
As soon as we go into
the water, we're black.
The second it drops under
an inch, the light's gone.
- Like, pitch-black.
- Yeah.
RICK: Well, that pretty much
writes the tale right there.
- SCOTT: Yeah.
- Oh, I can see the water.
It's murky. Really murky.
RICK: I-I don't know that we
need to go any further here.
- SCOTT: No.
- ALEX: Yeah.
RICK: I am really
struggling a bit
for one simple reason:
the peculiarity
of the construct,
i.e., being seven feet tall,
it presents all kinds
of "What's here?"
- It's all stirred up, for sure.
- SCOTT: Very fresh.
It's-it's very
recently disturbed.
RICK: Where's the
beginning? Where's the end?
Who was down here?
There was a tremendous
amount of material
to be removed from that.
Why go to those efforts?
And that's a key question.
Why do you need seven feet?
What's in there?
SCOTT: Let's get
the drill out the hole
- so we can keep it moving.
- Yep.
RICK: I agree.
We hit wood, we hit a void.
It almost certainly is a
tunnel. It's at the right depth.
It appears to be that the
tunnel from the Baby Blob area
passes directly under the
Garden Shaft and continues east.
A lot of data points
to the likelihood
that there is something there,
and I'm speaking about
the metals in the water.
This tunnel we're
trying to follow
and this chamber we've found
might be the source
of the high metals.
If there's a tunnel,
we'll follow it.
So, all in all,
I think we're closer
than we've ever been.
PAUL: So, how far
are you gonna go over
for the next hole
after this one?
SCOTT: We can
pull ahead and drill
- around the 27 line...
- ALEX: Yeah, okay.
And look for connectivity
between the two tunnels.
Okay. Sounds like a plan.
- ALEX: All right.
- STEVE: See you, Steve.
STEVE: We'll see you later.
NARRATOR: For
more than two centuries,
generations of searchers
have made discoveries
on Oak Island suggesting
that they were on the verge
of solving the mystery,
only to have their dreams
dashed by unforeseen events.
Rick, Marty and their team
have also once again experienced
the firm grip that the island
has long kept on her secrets.
And while all of
their predecessors
eventually had to
give up or move on,
one thing is certain.
The Laginas have no
intention of stopping
until they hold the ultimate
answers in their hands.
Next time on The
Curse of Oak Island...
- CHARLES: Here it comes.
- RICK: The Garden Shaft project
is finally underway.
BILL: This way a bit.
GARY: Time to
open Pandora's box.
ALEX: Oh, boy.
- Wow.
- Wow.
HELEN: I'll tell you, Jack,
it's the first time in
I have seen something
like this buried.
They're hiding something.
Ooh. Interesting.
Brilliant.
11x03 - Taking Their sh*t
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Follows brothers Marty and Rick as they search for the infamous treasure on Oak Island.
Follows brothers Marty and Rick as they search for the infamous treasure on Oak Island.